IN THE LOOP: HHV DECEMBER NEWSLETTER
At the bottom you’ll find a treat, our Muddy Hell recap video can’t be beat!
TIME TO GET FESTIVE
FHHV CHRISTMAS CLASSIC
Saturday 20 December
The Friends of Herne Hill Velodrome present their Christmas Classic! Like Track League, but in winter.
If you’d like to race, enter here.
MINCE PIE COMPETITION
For those who want to be competitive but not race, we are holding a mince pie competition! Homemade only, bake us your best pies and bring 6 (or more) down with you to be judged after the racing (about 4pm.)
SPECTATORS WANTED
For those who just want to be festive, come down and indulge, there will be mince pies and mulled wine/cider! FREE TO WATCH. If you can, please Volunteer to help us make this race a possibility - click here to register!
FESTIVE FAMILY SESSIONS
Fun for the whole fam! We have a few family specific riding sessions on the 24th, 30th, and 31st of December. Choose from Track Skills (if you’ve all done at least a taster before), Track Taster (if one of you hasn’t done a taster before), or Mountain Biking (the first time we’ve done this as a family session!
december holiday clubs
Optionally, on the 22nd and 23rd of December we are hosting both MTB and Track holiday clubs. Get the kids out of your hair while you do your Xmas preparations. Please note these are weather dependent and we will move bookings to the Spring if we’re not able to run these.
FESTIVE 500 / YOUTH FESTIVE 50 / Kids Festive 50
The Festives 50 and 500 are nearly upon us. For the uninitiated, these two all-in-one-go challenges are aimed at different age groups. The youths take on the 50km in just 3h, and the adults take on the 500km in 24-ish hours.
It is a gruelling endeavour, grimacing through wind, cold, rain. Riders are fundraising for both Herne Hill Velodrome and their chosen charities. All the Festive 500 riders’ fundraising pages are linked throuugh the button below, andd you can go straight to the Festive 50 youth riders page here.
KIDS FESTIVE 50 - RIDERS WANTED!
The little ones aren’t left out either, we’ve got the Inner Track Festive 50 ready for riders. If you’re looking for a Christmas week activity that'll allow the kiddos to blow off some steam... we are seeking riders under 10 years old to take on 50 laps of our 250m inner track! They can tackle the 12.5km on their own or as part of a team. Click on this link to the entry form to register your little riders, ambitious balance bikers and pedallers welcome.
festive ROAD BIKE riding
An open road bike session for cyclists to get some riding time in a traffic-free environment. These sessions are supervised but uncoached and a way for you to get those festive miles in a traffic-free environment. Please check in with a staff member before entering the track to let us know you're here, and to receive the safety briefing.
We’ve got several longer opportunities to ride over the festive period, for the same price as a regular 1h road bike session:
21st Dec: 11am-1pm
24th Dec: 10am-12pm
30th Dec: 10am-12pm & 3pm-5pm
31st Dec: 10am-12pm
NEW YEAR’S DAY MADISON
We are excited to host the annual New Years Day ultimate recovery race here on the trails at Herne Hill Velodrome once again! Set our your best intentions for 2026 with our not overly serious cyclocross race, featuring all the exciting and fast twists and turns of the tracks.
Teams of two take it in turns to race a lap, before tagging their partner into the race, alternating laps until the finish. Getting a rest every lap means you can go a lot quicker in the race, hitting the technical sections with more speed and giving you a different challenge to most cross races through the season.
There will be racing for every category from Under 10 and 12s to Youths, Seniors and Vets with podiums for the top pairs in the male, female and mixed categories.
BIKE MAINTENANCE CLASSES
Ops manager / mechanic Jenni is teaching bike maintenance in 2026!
Story of the 2025 Track Season
Are you missing the track racing season already. Have a read of our report of all of our track leagues last summer and start getting excited about next season - dates to be announced early in the new year
That’s all for now friends. Wishing you a wonderful holiday season.
Until next time, keep turning left!
The team at Herne Hill Velodrome